Buffer vs. SEMrush: The Great Twitter Chat Battle

Every Wednesday the marketing industry sharpens its tweets and thoughts, and joins the great battle of Twitter Chats: SEMrush Chat vs. Buffer Chat.

If you haven’t heard of it, it’s kind of the Apple vs. Google, Federer vs. Djokovic, Friends vs Seinfeld scale of a battle – but for online marketing twitter chats.

The SEMrush Chat (8 am PST; #SEMrushchat) is a managed by SEMrush, which offers a suite for SEO, PPC and other online marketing needs. They recap every session with an interesting blog post. Check it out here.

Immediately after that chat is over, the Buffer Chat starts (9 am PST; #Bufferchat). Topics here usually evolve around social media and digital marketing, and from time to time is spiced up with topics like productivity or personal improvement. Check out their neat recap page for the chat session.

Wait, what is a Twitter Chat?

Twitter chats are a live Twitter event with a dedicated hashtag, where anyone can participate in discussions around an interesting topic. There are such chats on just about every topic you can think of, like vegan food or even scary books.

The best way to follow and participate in a Twitter Chat is with a dedicated web app. Two of our favourites are TweetChat and tchat.io. These let you stay focused on crafting your tweets and help you stay on top of the hashtag so you can take part in the conversation.

Marketing chats specifically are crowded with people. First-time attendees might feel overwhelmed by the speed of tweets. The event’s organizers prepare 6-7 questions as a basis for discussion during the one hour chat, and people’s thoughts and opinions on these questions flood the room and make it a cheery mingling event.

Two leading chats focused on digital marketing are those of SEMrush and Buffer. We’ve set monitors after the chats’ hashtags to see what are the real differences between the two and who is winning this chat-battle. Here’s what we’ve found:

Who has more participants?

Both chats are held on Wednesday approximately on the same time. That explains the resemblance of peaks during the month. Their hashtag mentions are tight and Buffer wins here by points – 21k vs. 19.2k for 8 chats sessions:

Which participants are more influential?

The real story hides in the impressions differences:

Now that’s a different ball game. The impressions show the amplification potential of the conversations. It aggregates the numbers of followers of the users that participated in these conversations. As you can see, Buffer’s crowd is hitting a home run and the exposure here is far greater.

SEMrush’s dominant user is young male (18-24 y/o), that is interested in SEO and marketing.

Buffer’s is different. The dominant user is a women (25-34 y/o), that is more into social media, marketing and business.

If the difference in amplification lies in the power users, who are the ones who move the needle on every chat?

Conclusion

It is common to hear SEMRush attendees say they had a great time and are now rushing to BufferChat. But our in-depth analysis of the two chats revealed the differences of the two audiences, which are clearly not the same.

Both chats host quality Twitter users, but as we saw in the data, the similar quantity of users doesn’t tell the whole story.

After we compared the two chats for about 2 months, we saw the interests and demographics differences, along with their power and amplification potential.

SEMrush attracts SEO experts and rules this industry in the chat battle. Buffer on the other hand has more influential users and rocks the marketing industry in the battle between the two.

About Yuval Maoz

12 thoughts on “Buffer vs. SEMrush: The Great Twitter Chat Battle”

Oh what a post! Thank you for the research, Yuval! To be honest, #bufferchat was the chat we aspired to reach one day. And we had no idea we’ll reach similar numbers in less than one year, considering SEMrush community is 10 times smaller than the audience of Buffer. No doubt that Buffer wins in terms of participants and reach, but I consider it as a huge success anyway 🙂

Great post about the “Ford vs Chevy” (friendly) battle of the Wednesday Twitter chats!

While I participate in — and love! — both chats, I have to say Bufferchat has gotten SO huge that it’s nearly impossible to a) keep up with the questions, b) engage in friendly side conversations or c) have the time to craft well-thought-out responses.

In that regard, I like SEMrushchat MUCH better…

…the participants are lively and talkative; and there’s still time to answer questions well (and know you’re providing value) while still being able to “chat” with other chatters separately (which, to be frank, is my favorite part of any Twitter chat!).

Keep up the good work, SEMrush team — I look forward to Wednesday mornings because of you!

Hey Sarah,
I completely agree that BufferChat can be a bit overwhelming with its intensity, while the SEMreush experience is more conversation-friendly. Though I still find a value on each one of them.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.:)

Exceptional research Yuval. I had a strong feeling that Bufferchat would emerge the winner. I haven’t come across a chat which is as comprehensive and thoroughly engaging as Bufferchat. But 25-34 y/o women being the dominant demographic is surprising 🙂